Review by Alex on October 20, 2021.

Spent the better half of the day trying to come to some sort of understanding as to what In Crucem Agere did on their third full-length album. It was a grueling task this one, only to meet the summit of nowhere. It was that or listen to the fucking shit being broadcast over terrestrial radio here. The Gods Sent No Sign, well no shit, you didn't say, just decided to unearth all the decaying things of the netherworld and scramble the little sanity you had left. Merging various styles into one compact and seemingly effortless offering, Calling The Void has moments of both deception and clarity.

The music on Calling The Void has a fair level of atmospherics that help out in keeping the record mobile and the blend of genres is slightly offsetting which is exactly what you want with an album that boasts the "avant-garde" tag. Not to be mistaken for a technical centered album, though you'd be heartfelt to not find and traces of it, Calling The Void walks a very thin and precisely drawn line among technicality, rhythm, simplicity, atmosphere and chaos. First listen, you could say I was trapped in a vacuum of uncertainty with various elements being introduced at a rapid pace, yet with time this became a strange joy to hear spontaneous jumps from progressive, 2nd wave black metal, 1st wave black metal and even jazz (if I'm correct). Sonic schizophrenia peaks on 'Calling The Void' and by the time you get to the end of 'Fall Of The Idols' you've surrendered to the sublimity of the incorporated genres.

A melancholic feeling arouses during title song 'Calling The Void' also very reminiscent of a Dark Funeral constructed composition for a few moments before committing once again to the colliding currents of sounds. There's emotional value in this and all the songs on the album, which add thought and ponder to the listening experience. Still adhering to the avant-garde tag, In Crucem Agere's music begins to display a more risky style of composition as songs down the order would exhibit stronger, more fluently integrated subgenres to the primary structure. Greater sense of character comes to front, the guitar work becomes more of a fronting feature and the drumming unlocks a layer of semi-unorthodoxy. More evident on 'The Bicameral Mind', you'll find these properties at work simultaneously more times than not.

Despite the solidity of the album, there are moments in which the music take on a fragile or delicate feeling. As though put together with absolute care, you get the sense the music could fall apart if one note is played with error. No room for correction, it calls for unbreakable concentration to get it done right the first time or it's back to square one.

In Crucem Agere certainly is a tricky album that may appear simple from an angle, however with progression you begin to see the importance and intricacies of the little parts making up the functioning apparatus.

Rating: 7.9 out of 10